Beer Festival

The "Belgian Beer Weekend" took place on the weekend of the 5th-7th in the Grand Place (or as I like to call it, the Grote Markt). It was a beer festival with free entry and token exchange for full-glass beer samples. 3 tokens (bottle caps) cost 2 euros which, because of the bad economy in the US, is about $2.35. Most beers cost 3 tokens, but many were 2 and some were 4. Though this event was a little "commercial" (i.e.- only the larger Belgian breweries), it was a delectable event. Beers from the entire spectrum of Belgian beers, as previously described in a verbose post back in July. And I did pretty well, tasting all across that spectrum. What a welcome to Brussels! All of our (or atleast my) worries melted away!

Kristen and I went on Saturday... and I returned again on Sunday (just couldn't stay away). We met up with my new Belgian friend, Jeroen. A guy I had corresponded with a few times on beeradvocate.com before moving here. We arranged to meet at the Trappist stand at 4pm. With physical descriptions of each other, that wasn't too difficult, even in a throng of people (and the throng was thronging quite ferociously). He introduced us to his wife, friends, and newborn son, Arthur. They had to leave soon after we met him though because Arthur wanted his favorite beverage! However, I met up with Jeroen and a couple of his friends again on Sunday. This is the start of a beautiful friendship. Outside of having someone to talk beer with, it eased our fears a bit to have someone over here to ask questions. He was very generous with advice over e-mail, before we even met him.

We've had good "people experiences" here for the most part, but more about that in the Job Search section of this initial tour of our life in Brussels.

--RP--